ALL you need is love of the Beatles and a lot of hard work and you can produce a magazine which has been welcomed by fans worldwide.

Without any formal training, Joanne Rishton, 29, of Lindale Avenue, Preston, and her friend Nina Duckworth, 24, (both pictured) have produced a Beatles' fanzine "The Word is Love" which has received widespread acclaim.

It's already sold nearly hundreds of copies as far afield as the USA, Germany and Brazil through the girls' website and they've had hundreds more inquiries.

"My mum and dad brought me up on 70s music, Wings and such like," said Joanne.

"I remember loving 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' and then I went to see Torville and Dean when they skated to a Beatles' melody. After that I saw the film Backbeat and I was sold."

After years of idol worship, Joanne got in contact with other Beatles' fans and decided to attend the Beatles' annual convention in Liverpool in 1998.

"One of the things about the convention is the tribute bands -- I was bowled over by how talented so many of them are," said Joanne.

There she made many new friends and pen pals, and when she got back home after the 1999 convention she and Nina had the idea for the fanzine. "I realised all these tribute bands were playing across the whole of Britain and the world, but it was hard for the fans to find out exactly where," said Joanne.

"So Nina and I decided to write a magazine about them all."

It's called "The Word is Love" after a lyric in a song off the Rubber Soul album, called "The Word'."

After the first issue, Joanne and Nina approached a college of further education, wanting to learn some more about structuring a magazine and desk-top publishing, but were told they had already done really well.

"It was a case of 'We've got nothing to teach you that you haven't learnt already'," said Joanne.

Not only was the college impressed, but so are many Beatles' aficionados.

Bill Heckle, the man who organises the Beatles' convention has called the fanzine "the magazine of the fans" and even John Lennon's family are reported to have enjoyed reading a copy.

Now working on the third edition, Joanne and Nina have had requests from Beatles' fans from around the world who have visited their website.

Find it at www.thewordislove.com